Environmental Impact Assessment Follow–Up in Central Uganda’s Processing and Manufacturing Industries: Implications for Achieving Sustainable Development

Abstract

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) was introduced in Uganda by the National Environment Act 1995, now repealed by the National Environment Act 2019. EIA was made operational by the EIA Regulations, 1998, which is now replaced by the National Environment (Environmental and Social Assessment) Regulations 2020. It is generally agreed that the EIA follow-up is an essential part of the EIA process, without which EIA becomes a pro-forma exercise seeking plan or project approval. This paper assesses the legal and regulatory provisions for EIA follow-up and the actual practice in central Uganda’s processing and manufacturing industries for 24 years (1995-2019) of practice. Data was collected from key categories of EIA stakeholders, including the affected public, the interested public, the developers, and the regulator or its delegated entities. Data was collected between 2018 and 2019 using a review of related literature, documentary analysis, checklists, key informant interviews, and specifically designed questionnaires for the different categories of key EIA stakeholders. Data was analyzed using largely descriptive statistics and, to some extent, inferential statistics. Our finding was that there was a wide gap between law and the actual practice of EIA follow-up. Specifically, there was limited monitoring by the regulator, absent post-assessment environmental audit, low to moderate implementation of mitigation measures and poor communication between the developers and the affected public. This was mainly due to poor implementation of the pre-approval phases of the EIA process and other context factors. The paper made several recommendations to improve the design and implementation of the EIA follow-up program